Is there only one central "push" server that our iPhones are listening to? I ask because I have push for Textfree, Yahoo! Mail, and Google Calendars activated. Is my phone now listening to three different servers or just one? And if my phone is keeping an active connection with three different servers, will my battery life be drastically reduced versus listening to just one server?
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Good question regarding push and battery life
- Thread starter vega07
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I've always thought that it worked like this: Say, for instance, you're running an IM app with push notifications. You send someone a message, and close down the application. At this point, the application is completely closed on your phone. However, most IM apps keep you signed on for a designated amount of time after you close your connection with their IM server. Now someone responds to your message, and the IM server tells Apple's Push Notification server that you've gotten a message. The Apple server takes the data, and pushes it (like Push email) to your phone. The only battery usage that incurs is the iPhone receives data and displays some sort of alert and maybe a badge for the application icon.
I could be off by a bit, if someone else wants to step in. Apple created the Push Notification system exclusively to help save the battery life of your iPhone, so I doubt they'd allow it to be a huge battery drain (regardless of how many notifications you get). It will use more power, though, but no more then getting an SMS or Email.
I could be off by a bit, if someone else wants to step in. Apple created the Push Notification system exclusively to help save the battery life of your iPhone, so I doubt they'd allow it to be a huge battery drain (regardless of how many notifications you get). It will use more power, though, but no more then getting an SMS or Email.
so I can activate every push option available (like 100 of them) and battery life will still remain the same? this is the conclusion I got from your reply.
I don't believe this is a true statement. I think its more like:
Connecting to Apples 1 push server (which is apps only, not contact/calendar/exchange) is better than connecting to 100 different app servers.
The more stuff you push, the worse your battery life will be. Assume you play a sound + vibrate every time you get a notificiation. Getting 1 per hour will be less stressful than getting 100/hour as the simple act of alert/vibration takes some portion (albeit small) of battery life.
Your statement would be true if Apple queued up all your notifications and pushed them down once per hour, but currently it happens on a per-notification basis.
Getting alerted ONLY when you have new data to download uses less power than constantly being connected to several different servers, which is why Apple claims that their push technology is superior to multitasking.
how sure are you about this? looks like there is no consensus.
if calendar and mail are on separate push servers, then I will probably disable those two and just use app push.
If you have MobileMe contacts/calendars sync then maaaaaaaaaaaaaybe on the off-chance the Apple servers could be located in the same zip code.
If not, your data does not get touched to Apples "push notification" servers. I've been using Google Sync with push cal & contacts for about 3 months now on OS 2.2.1.
"Push" has been on the iPhone for a while (beginning with Yahoo & Push email). Push Notifications for application data is a new feature of OS 3.0
If you have MobileMe contacts/calendars sync then maaaaaaaaaaaaaybe on the off-chance the Apple servers could be located in the same zip code.
If not, your data does not get touched to Apples "push notification" servers. I've been using Google Sync with push cal & contacts for about 3 months now on OS 2.2.1.
"Push" has been on the iPhone for a while (beginning with Yahoo & Push email). Push Notifications for application data is a new feature of OS 3.0
I am not going to pay for mobileme just to centralize mail, calendar and app push into one server.
i would think you are connected to 3 separate servers.
1. apple's push notifications server
2. yahoo mails push server
3. google syncs exchange server
yep, I agree. anyone know if being connected to all three of these will dramatically reduce battery life?